Review of Before Sunset (2004) by Love F — 24 Sep 2011

Before Sunrise/Before Sunset.

Copyright 2011 by Lovestoryfan1.

Before Sunrise and its sequel Before Sunset are two awfully romantic movies about this guy who meets this girl on a train in Austria. Because he has no money for a hotel room, they end up wandering Vienna throughout the night, getting to know each other. He has to be on a plane back to America in the morning and they have only one night together (hence, the name Before Sunrise). At the end of the night, they promise to meet again at the train station in six months, but as we find out in the sequel, they don't. In the sequel, our man (played by Ethan Hawke) has written a novel about their time spent together, and he's giving a talk at a Paris book shop when who should wander in but our heroine (Julie Delphy).

The premise and situation are awfully romantic, but the story is slow and tends to wander, like our two leads. My main problem with both pictures is too much dialogue. That can't sustain an entire film, much less two. If I wanted nothing but dialogue, I'd listen to the freaking radio.

As the great screenwriter and teacher Syd Field said, a film is defined as a story told in pictures, played out in a dramatic context.

Again, pictures.

Not words, but pictures.

If I wanted nothing but words, I'd read a damn book.

In addition, nothing really happens. All they do is explore each other via dialogue.

The story idea and premise are awfully romantic, but the execution was poor. I just wished that something happened. Have a rapist attempt to rape the chick, and then have the hero save her. That way, he'd turn out to be a hero and she'd fall more deeply in love with him. Or maybe she turns out to be a poor prostitute who was trying to solicit a client without trying to be too forward and he doesn't know any better. Imagine all the hilarious situations that could lead to. Maybe he's a horny pig whose only intention is to get some from her and he spends the entire film trying to do that.

Anything, anything at all, is better than just walking around and talking.

Yet, I found myself quite charmed with the premise, even though the story execution was poor. There is something awfully romantic about developing feelings for someone, and then never seeing them again. Perhaps, it's a reference to the saying, I love you so much that I never want to see you again. If I see you again, I'd only end up hurting you and the romantic fantasy that two people could be together forever and still sustain intensely passionate feelings for each other wouldn't turn out to be nothing but high fantasy, a page taken from the Lord of the Rings.

In any case, this duo of films has the right concept, but the wrong execution.

6/10.